FIENDISH NAZIS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 154, 2 June 1941, Page 5

FIENDISH NAZIS

| ATTACK ON HOSPITAL. brutal"methods. (N.Z.E.F. Official News Service.) j (Rec. ll.gU a.m.) CAIRO, June 1. The story of how hospital pa--1 tients, comprising British and JJo- | minion troops, were brutally i treated by German parachutists ! before being eventually rescued by a New Zealand Rifle Battalion j lias been told by some of the pa- '< tients concerned, who have just I been evacuated from Crete. One of these, a New Zealander who was suffering from malaria and is still in a very weak condition, commenced j his story as dating from May 10. Ho jsaid that immediately prior to that : tlate things had been expected to liapI pen at any time. He was then in a ! field hospital, about 20 miles from. (Suda Bay. On May JU the German air activity began to increase markedly and, Irom then on until May 20. when parachute operations were commenced,! I the enemy air force paid more reguI lar and more frequent visits, on an ■ ever-increasing scale. All day long on May 19 there was a continuous stream-.of bombers and fighters, bombing and strafing from I Suda Bay to Malemi Aerodrome. On '. the morning of May 20 •'Jerry" start- | ed early and it was his heaviest and | most concentrated attack to date. Up | till then this particular hospital had ' l>eeii more or less loft alone, but that i

morning between 40 and 50 planes api peared overhead and subjected the hospital and its environs to continuous machine-gunning and dive-bomb-ing for an hour and a half. The hospital was merely a tented one, but it was particularly clearly marked. As a result of this fiendish aetion the tents were torn apart and patients already wounded were again injured. Then troop-carriers hove into view and within a few minutes the parachutists were dropping as thick as flies on a summer's day. Once on tlic ground the Germans surrounded the hospital and commenced to take charge. Pointing their tommy-guns at the patients they ordered them out, whether they ' could walk or not. At some tents they went

as far as to throw hand-grenades among the patients to "hurry them along. They then pulled down the Brit-£h flag and hoisted the Nazi emblem and, turning to the patients, made them stand beneath it for half an hour with their hands up all the time. For many patients the strain was too great and they collapsed.

OFFICERS CLASH. To their relief a German officer told them to sit down and keep quiet and not cause any fuss. He gave them cigarettes and went so lar as to order some food lor them. However, his commendable intentions were quickly nipped in the bud by another German officer of superior rank who swaggered tip, roaring and swearing in broken Knglish and threatening the patients with a hand-grenade. Once again they were forced t-o stand with their hands above their heads, whereupon the offi cor produced a camera and commenced to take their photographs.

Meantime the first officer sent for medicine for the patients and for hats to shield them from the sun, but once again his efforts were frustrated by his senior, who ran alter, the orderlies and angrily cancelled the order. Meantime a New Zealand rifle bat talion were about FIX) yards away hilly a.ware of what was going on and trying their best to come to the rescue. Suddenly their snipers opened up and the senior German officer wa.s bowled over as clean as a whistle. Not. knowing the strength of the opposing force, the Germans left the hospital, placing the prisoners in I the charge of a guard ot about tG i men, who ordered tliem to march on down the road ahead to act as a j barrage or protection to them and to the retreating force.

The road took them over a hill into partial open view of the New Zeaiianders, who opened up in hopes of collecting the German guard.

"Some of our own men could not help being hit," .said the New Zealand soldier, who added that the Rifle Battalion soon took control of the situation and effected a speedy rescue. This story was independently told by several who were present.

Meantime more Germans were landing with mortars and tommy-guns and it was decided to send 60ine of the battalion back to the hospital with the patients and hospital staff. That night they were moved from the hospital, which was untenable, to nearby caves, where the patients received much-needed treatment. HEROIC DOCTORS.

The doctors worked continuously for three days and two nights dressing the wounds down in the eaves, while they would snatch an odd hour making their way back to the hospital wil'i parties in endeavours to retrieve medicine and equipment. It was not until after three days that it was decided "sale'' to put up the flag of the Red Cross. Another man who recounted the story was an Australian who was himself slightly wounded when looking alter a Alaori boy who was in a bad way. The Maori had been again wounded when the hospital was attacked.

The Aussie pronounced himself very .strongly regarding a German pilot who had been a patient in the British hospital before it was attacked. When the Germans took over, this man volunteered to be one of the guard and proved one of the most brutal. On the other hand, while he was in British hands he had been carefully tended, no difference being made between him and the British patients. There are many other tales of German brutality, especially to the civilian population. Jn one house which the parachutists used as cover for their fire British soldiers found an old woman shot through the head and two children beaten to death as though with rifle butts.

Cases were frequent of women and children running screaming from the Germans until they ran into British or Dominion troops and were taken under their care. On the sides of roads ambulances were lying overturned by Ixmibs. and burning.